Cash transit firms yet to get Rs 25 crore from banks for services during note ban

More than a year after the note ban, Cash in Transit (CIT) companies are waiting for payment of about Rs 25 crore from banks for their additional services rendered during the period, the Cash Logistics Association (CLA) has said. CLA secretary general US Paliwal said these companies provided additional services for evacuating old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes from ATMs across the country and recalibration of about 1.5 lakh ATMs to dispense new notes of Rs 2,000 and Rs 500. “Nine such companies in India did a marvellous job of evacuation and recalibration… This was done across the country in a record time which was aimed at providing the new notes in the shortest possible time,” he said.

CLA is an industry association of nine CIT firms. These companies have made repeated requests for clearing their dues to various banks but only 60% have been cleared so far, he said, adding that the CLA has also approached the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) on the issue. There was no immediate comment on the issue from IBA.

“The RBI had recognised the efforts of the companies and the IBA had directed the member banks to pay Rs 4,000 per ATM for these efforts and service rendered. However till date, the companies have received only 60% of the amount due (Rs 60 crore) though a year has elapsed since the service was provided,” Paliwal said. Non-payment of dues is hurting these companies and has impacted their balance sheets, he added. The government scrapped the old Rs 500/1,000 notes on November 8 last year and people were asked to deposit them with banks by December 30. There was a separate timeline for NRIs and those who were abroad during the period.

As much as Rs 17 lakh crore worth of currency was with the public as on October 28, 2016. At the end of October 27, 2017, it was Rs 15.48 lakh crore, indicating that 91% of the re-monetisation had been completed. During the same period, the number of ATMs increased from 2,04,218 to about 2,07,375 at the end of September.

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